Chatting with Terra
Starting a chat, switching between threads, what happens during a turn, and how to follow along while Terra works.
Terra is the agent that builds and edits your brand's site. You work with it in Chats: a conversation on the left, and a live preview of your site on the right. When Terra changes something, you watch it happen in that preview.
Starting a chat
Open Chats from the sidebar. Every chat is one piece of work across your whole site, not a single page, so the list reads like a work log: title, a snippet of the last exchange, and how long ago it was active. Rows are grouped under Today, Earlier this week, and Older.
- Click New chat to start fresh.
- Click any row to reopen that conversation where you left it, including the preview and anything it produced.
A row marked playbook was started by a playbook run rather than typed by you.
The chat workspace
Opening a chat lands you on a split screen.
Left: the conversation. The strip at the top shows a status dot, your brand name, and the route currently in view (viewing /pricing). Under it is the chat title, plus its position in your list when you have more than one.
Right: the canvas. By default this is the Site tab: a live preview of your site with a page picker in the middle of the toolbar, a viewport toggle, and controls for editing, languages, version history, page settings, and publishing.
Once a chat has produced something, two more tabs appear:
- Artifacts collects every page, document, and playbook this conversation created or touched, each labelled Created or Updated. Clicking a page opens it in the preview; clicking a document opens it as its own tab.
- Document tabs open beside Site when Terra writes or reads one of your brand documents. A gold dot means Terra wrote to that tab while you were looking elsewhere.
The page open in the preview is the page Terra assumes you mean. "Make this shorter", "the hero", "fix this heading" all resolve to the route currently in view unless you name a different one.
Sending a request
The composer sits at the bottom of the conversation, with the placeholder Message Terra… (/ for commands).
- Enter sends. Shift+Enter adds a newline.
- Attach an image with the paperclip, or paste or drag files onto the chat. Up to four images per message; oversized images are scaled down before they are sent.
- Type
/to open the command palette.
Commands
Typing / lists the commands, ranked as you type. Pick one with the arrow keys and Enter, then type your instructions after it.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/seo-check | Audit the current page for SEO issues |
/build-page-opportunity | Plan and build a new page from a brief |
/refresh | Re-ground and improve an existing page |
/whats-happening | How your site is doing: visits, conversions, AI presence |
/translate | Localize a page into another language |
/connect | Connect an app. Listed in the palette, not available yet (see below) |
/undo | Revert the last change to your site |
/go-live | Put your site on your own domain |
/remember | Save a durable preference or fact |
/playbook | Run or browse your saved playbooks |
/generate-image | Generate an image with AI |
/connect appears in the command list but external app connections are not enabled yet; picking it will not connect anything. It is listed here so the palette and these docs agree.
Three of these open a second stage after the trailing space. /build-page-opportunity and /refresh list real page opportunities from your account, and /playbook lists your playbooks. Use the arrow keys to pick one, or keep typing: Enter with nothing highlighted sends your text as an ordinary freeform request. Rows already building show under Building now and are not pickable.
What a turn does
A turn is one request and everything Terra does to satisfy it. Terra works on its own inside a turn: it makes a short plan, does the work, checks its own result, commits and pushes the change, and closes with a summary of what changed, whether it verified it, and anything it left undone and why.
Two consequences:
- Terra narrates at milestones, not every step. Long silences between messages are normal. The activity line is what tells you it is still working.
- Terra sticks to what you asked for in that turn. If it notices an unrelated problem, it mentions it in one closing sentence and leaves it alone until you say otherwise. Asking "is the preview up?" gets you an answer, not a surprise rebuild.
How long things take
| Request | Rough time |
|---|---|
| A copy tweak or a few edits on one page | Seconds |
| Recreating an existing page from a live URL | A minute or two |
| Building a new multi-section page | Several minutes |
| Translating one page | Under a minute |
| Translating a whole site | A background job, minutes to much longer depending on page count |
Before anything it expects to take more than about half a minute, Terra sends one short heads-up line, then goes quiet and works.
Following along
While a turn runs, a single collapsed block sits in the conversation showing what Terra is doing right now: a working word, the current step in plain language ("Studying your site", "Updating your content", "Refreshing the preview"), and a ticking second counter. Between steps it reads Thinking….
Expand the block to see every step, with any screenshots Terra took inline. When the turn settles, the header becomes a factual summary such as 12 steps · Edited 2 files · 1m 12s. If a step failed in a way Terra could not work around, the block ends with couldn't finish.
Three other blocks can appear around a turn:
- Plan lists the steps Terra committed to for multi-step work, updated live. Every item ends the turn either completed or deferred with a reason.
- Sources lists what Terra consulted for checkable claims, each marked Verified or Unverified.
- Page and document cards appear at the end of a turn as the tangible result. Click one to open it.
If the conversation scrolls away from the bottom while Terra works, a New activity button appears to jump back.
Answering Terra's questions
When a decision is yours (brand direction, scope, which of two approaches), Terra posts a question card with clickable options. Every card also accepts free text, so you are never forced into one of the buttons. The turn waits until you answer.
Onboarding works the same way: Terra asks for your name, your role, and your website address, then asks how you want to begin.
Interrupting and steering
- Stop replaces the send button while Terra is working. It ends the current turn. Work already committed stays committed.
- Sending a message mid-turn does not interrupt. Your message is marked sent mid-turn, and Terra folds it into what it is doing.
- Clear chat (the trash icon) empties the conversation after a confirmation. It clears the transcript, not your site.
Feedback
Settled turns carry a thumbs up and thumbs down. A thumbs down opens an optional What went wrong? box. Both are recorded against that specific turn.
Working across several chats
Chats share one workspace: the same repository, the same site. That is deliberate, and it has one visible consequence. If another chat edits a route yours also touched, a banner appears naming the other chat and the routes, with Review to open the affected route.
Terra also re-reads any content before editing it, so an edit you made by hand in the visual editor is not overwritten. If content changed underneath it, Terra reads the current state and tells you rather than pushing a stale value.
Connection and recovery
The chat holds a live connection while you work. If it drops, the header shows connecting… or catching up… and reconnects on its own; after several failed attempts it shows Connection lost with a reconnect button. Messages you send while disconnected are kept and delivered on reconnect.
Work does not depend on your browser staying open. If a turn dies mid-flight, the next time you open the chat a banner reports A build was interrupted mid-turn, listing anything that was saved before the interruption.
Troubleshooting
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